WIU History Professor Elected to Phi Alpha Theta National Council

March 27, 2012

MACOMB, IL – Western Illinois University's Associate Professor of History Lee L. Brice was elected a National Councilor to Phi Alpha Theta, an honor society for undergraduate and graduate students and professors of history, at the society's biennial conference in January.

Brice was among seven professors from across the U.S. to be elected to this position, which advises the organization's executive board and serves on the society's governing council.

"Being elected is an honor for me and a recognition of how active our chapter of the society has been in the last five years. This is also a great opportunity for our chapter and department to increase our visibility at the national level in this prestigious honor society."

Brice, who joined Western's history faculty in Fall 2003, teaches ancient Rome, ancient Greece, pre-modern military history, and upper division and graduates courses on Alexander the Great. He is the director of the Undergraduate Research Initiative in Military History, and he had has taken students on summer study trips, once to Rome and twice to Greece. Historical movies, research projects including creating battlefield armor, public field exercises with Greek and Roman military techniques, as well as demonstrations of siege engines such as a trebuchet, which hurled large rocks into fortifications, are part of Brice's teaching style, which fill his classes.

"Dr. Brice has been the Faculty Advisor for WIU's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (PAT) since 2004, during which time the organization established the Western Illinois Historical Review online journal of WIU students' historical research and arranged for the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference to be held at WIU in Spring 2010," said Virginia Boynton, professor and chair of Western's history department. "That same year, WIU's PAT chapter won the Outstanding Student Organization Award from the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council. We are pleased that his commitment to Phi Alpha Theta has been recognized with his election to the organization's national Governing Council."

Brice has received many prestigious awards and grants, including the University of Cincinnati's Tytus Fellowship, a three-month residential fellowship in the field of ancient studies; the Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society for his research project, "Wealthy Corinth Revisited: A Greek Legacy of Small Denomination Coins," which was also partially supported by a University Research Council Grant; and the Eric Neumann Summer Fellowship from the American Numismatic Society. He has advised numerous students conducting research, and was presented the College of Arts and Sciences' Outstanding Faculty Award for Undergraduate Mentoring (2008) as well as the University's First Year Experience Teaching award (2006).

His publications include articles on the Roman army as a peacekeeping force and the treatment of the Roman army in the HBO/BBC TV series Rome, Octavian Caesar and the Roman army. He is also co-editor of the historiographical collection, "Recent Directions in the Military History of the Ancient World" (Regina Books, May 2011).

Brice is president of the Society of Ancient Military Historians and chair of the publications committee for the Association of Ancient Historians.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts (1988) from Virginia Commonwealth University, his Master of Arts (1993) from the University of Houston and his Ph.D. (2003) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.